D&D (2024) New Dungeon Master's Guide Cover Features Venger (From the D&D Cartoons)

The cover of the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide has been unveiled.... in the Mirror, a mainstream newspaper in the UK.

The cover art features villains (as opposed to the heroes on the Player's Handbook cover revealed last week), with skeletons in the foreground, the classic villains Skylla and Warduke in the mid ground, and then Venger from the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon looming in the background, and right at the back lurks a dracolich.

The DMG will be released November 12th, 2024.

 

[DarkCrisis]

So many posts that are basically:

“I can’t believe the 50th anniversary edition is using characters from the beginning of the game in the 50th anniversary edition meant to celebrate the beginning of the game. I’m so mad!”

God forbid WotC use the 50th anniversary edition covers to celebrate IDK the anniversary.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Honestly, I've never seen the cartoons, so whether or not these are cartoon characters doesn't really matter much to me. I just ... quibble with the art a little, like the magical arc from Venger looks odd to me.

Venger is pretty clearly an odd dude.

He has all those magical abilities, but somehow can't manage a mending cantrip on his hat!

 

[Parmandur]

I think it’s more likely a reaction to “this looks like AI art”.

Yup, WotC is really leaning into "human art made by humas" as a boutique selling point.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Venger is pretty clearly an odd dude.

He has all those magical abilities, but somehow can't manage a mending cantrip on his hat!

I’m reasonably sure the horn is part of his head…

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I’m reasonably sure the horn is part of his head…

The dude needs to make friends with an eeeevil cleric, then, or hunt down a ring of regeneration instead of spending all his time worrying about some meddling kids.

Vecna managed to get his eye and hand back, after a fashion. Venger's up next in the alphabetical listing of D&D villains.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

A brushy art style does not mean it’s not finished. It’s a choice. Lots of great paintings over the centuries have had a brushy art style. In fact, one of the mark of a lot of great masters was knowing what details to focus on, and which to leave vague.

I think we're going to see more of "brushy art" because of the existence of AI generated images. Being able to see brushstrokes is currently a way of telling if art has been human-generated or not.

Then again I thought there be a big resurgence of abstract art because of AI, but I haven't seen signs of that yet.

 

[Weiley31]

Vengar snowboarding while drinking Mountain Dew while listening to Xtreme! grunge music.

Considering Venger is Merlin and the son of the Dungeon Master, that sounds about right.

 

[ngenius]

I really like the contrast between PHB versus DMG covers: happy go-lucky Adventures versus grimdark GM here

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am a little surprised we're getting the DMG cover this far out. I wonder if that means we'll be seeing the Monster Manual cover before too long.

(We've had Greyhawk, now we have the cartoon. Dare we hope for the 2000 movie for the MM cover? )

 

[KYRON45]

Wild Beyond the Witchlight says hello.

But more importantly, non-WotC 5E products are frantically trying to get your attention with their often wildly different ideas about settings, adventures, monsters and rules systems.

I embrace the third party creativity. I just feel that Wotc; while putting out some great products; should be cutting edge. How many versions of “Homlett” do we need? Are there no other towns? I’m being hyperbolic but I’m sure you get my point.